Anatoly Kovler,
Elisabeth Steiner,
Khanlar Hajiyev,
Dean Spielmann,
Sverre Erik Jebens, judges,
and {Soren} Nielsen, Section Registrar,
Having deliberated in private on 24 June 2010,
Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on the last-mentioned date:

PROCEDURE

1. The case originated in an application (No. 9487/02) against the Russian Federation lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms ("the Convention") by a Russian national, Aleksandr Vyacheslavovich Medvedev ("the applicant"), on 27 January 2002.
2. The applicant was represented by Mr A.Y. Yablokov, a lawyer practising in Moscow. The Russian Government ("the Government") were represented by Mr P. Laptev, former Representative of the Russian Federation at the European Court of Human Rights.
3. Under Articles 3, 5 and 6 of the Convention, the applicant complained of ill-treatment by the police, lack of medical care in pre-trial detention, lack of information about the reasons for his arrest, delay by the court in reviewing the lawfulness of his detention, and unfairness of the criminal proceedings in his criminal case.
4. On 4 May 2006 the Court declared the application partly inadmissible and decided to communicate to the Government the complaints concerning the alleged ill-treatment of the applicant while in police custody and the delay in reviewing his application for release. It was also decided to examine the merits of the application at the same time as its admissibility (Article 29 § 1).

THE FACTS

I. The circumstances of the case

A. The alleged ill-treatment

5. The applicant was born in 1978 and lives in Moscow.
6. In the early morning of 22 February 2001 the applicant entered the grounds of a furniture depot, where he was spotted by security guards. The guards called the police, and, soon after, the applicant was arrested. He claimed that he had been beaten by the police officers and the guards when he was being arrested. After searching the premises, the police discovered a handgun, allegedly belonging to the applicant. The applicant was taken to Vidnovo police station (Moscow Region) for questioning.
7. The applicant alleges that in the course of the questioning police officers M. and E. tortured him: they put a gas mask over his head and blocked air access, so that he started suffocating. They also hit him with a rubber stick. The applicant agreed to confess to theft and, moreover, to give them money so that they would stop. At about 4 a.m. the applicant went to his flat, accompanied by two police officers, where, at gunpoint, he handed over 5,000 US dollars. Then the police officers returned to the police station with him and he was locked in a cell. However, the policemen promised him that if he confessed to the alleged crimes the town prosecutor would soon release him on bail. The applic